The Rest Is History
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The History Podcast
by BBC Radio 4
Today: #132 in History on our combined chart.
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| Date | Apple Podcasts |
|---|---|
| Oct 3 | #123 |
About the show
Writer and broadcaster Andrew Hunter Murray uncovers last century’s biggest ever publishing scandal, a forgery which rocked the world and destroyed reputations.
When Germany’s biggest magazine Stern announced in 1983 that they’d found the long-lost diaries of Adolf Hitler, authenticated by the eminent British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, the world was poised to rewrite history.
Salvaged from the wreckage of a Junkers plane which had crashed escaping Hitler’s Berlin bunker in the dying days of the war, the diaries had been hidden in a hayloft in East Germany for forty years. And remarkably they had now come to light, smuggled across the border into West Germany at the height of the Cold War. One lone journalist, Gerd Heidemann, known as ‘The Bloodhound’, had tracked them down. It had taken two years of secret missions and millions of Deutschmarks to amass all sixty volumes of Hitler’s personal, handwritten journals. The world was about to find the truth of Adolf Hitler’s mind: what he knew, what motivated him, his intimate reflections as the Third Reich rose and fell.
That, at least, was the story – a story which news organisations the world over, including Rupert Murdoch’s newly-acquired Sunday Times, believed. This would be a sensation – assuming, of course, that it was true.
It’s a tale of greed, obsession and mass delusion. It includes Hermann Göring’s yacht, Nazi-themed honeymoons, Idi Amin’s underpants, and more details almost too unbelievable for words. Murray interviews the people who were there as the diaries were announced to the world, and as the story fell apart: the archivist tasked with authenticating the diaries in Germany, the TV producer led around the homes of retired Nazis to film a promotional doc for the scoop, and the Fleet Street editor given 24 hours to create a world-beating story based on fraudulent material.
Murray’s mission is to track down the actual books which caused all this chaos, and to get as close as he can to the truth. In our own time of AI, fake news and disinformation, are there any lessons we can take from the greatest hoax of the last fifty years?
A Whistledown Production for BBC Sounds and Radio 4
Presenter: Andrew Hunter Murray
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
Latest episodes
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The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 10. Downfall
September 21, 2026 · 15 minAndrew Hunter Murray tracks down Hitler’s faked diaries to the Bundesarchiv – the Federal Archive – in Koblenz. How did these slim A4 notebooks cause such enormous trouble? But the archivists have one more surprise in store. After all…
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The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 9. The Trial
September 21, 2026 · 14 minIt’s May 1983, and everything is falling apart for Gerd Heidemann. Now the heat is on forger Konrad Kujau too. How long can he stay incognito? Millions of Deutschmarks are unaccounted for, reputations lie in tatters. Who will take the…
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The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 8. Bunker Mentality
September 21, 2026 · 14 minStern’s editorial and management team dig in, sticking by their story and their journalist Gerd Heidemann. Hugh Trevor-Roper returns to Cambridge shaken, hiding away in the master’s lodge at Peterhouse. Meanwhile, Dr Josef Henke of the…
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The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 7. An Opera Set for Hell
September 21, 2026 · 14 minIt’s Monday, 25 April 1983, the day of the big press conference at Stern’s offices in Hamburg. The world’s media is assembled, awaiting the ‘scoop of the century’. The room is packed and Stern’s team, along with British historian Hugh…
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The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 6. Final Proofs
September 21, 2026 · 14 minIt’s April 1983 and in Hamburg, Stern is just putting the final touches to its coverage and its promotional film. But for TV producer Barbara Dickmann, something seems very off with her final interviewee – the journalist behind the scoop…
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The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 5. Money for Old Roper
September 14, 2026 · 14 minIt’s spring 1983 and Stern magazine’s inner circle is making frenzied preparations to launch its scoop of the century. Deals are being cut in media empires from London to Paris to New York. The Times and Sunday Times, newly acquired by…
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The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 4. Fried Potatoes and Forgery
September 14, 2026 · 15 minIt’s early 1981 and the forger Konrad Kujau and the journalist Gerd Heidemann are about to come face to face. Everything’s in motion - Stern management and a small team of editorial staff are on board, sworn to secrecy from colleagues and…
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The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 3. Champagne Connie
September 14, 2026 · 14 minAndrew Hunter Murray travels to the scene of the crime, just outside Stuttgart, from where the forger Konrad Kujau ran his cottage industry. Who was this man, prone to splash the cash in local bars and have a good time while knocking out…